We wrap up our Old Testament series by looking at how everything comes into focus when we read it in light of Jesus and the cross, like a mystery where the ending makes sense of all the earlier clues. We review sin’s four dimensions from Adam and Eve—breaking God’s command, betraying trust, aligning with and becoming enslaved to the enemy, and forfeiting the good life with God—and how the cross undoes this through justification (substitutionary sacrifice), reconciliation and redemption (restoring what’s been lost), victory over the enemy (seen in Exodus and David), and new life through resurrection.

We trace the Old Testament’s repeated pattern that no human hero can fix humanity’s “Adam DNA,” pointing to the need for a new kind of life Jesus brings. Throughout, we emphasize the scarlet thread of grace and end by encouraging ongoing dependence on grace through prayer, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Old Testament Through the Cross

00:56 Four Dimensions of Sin

02:47 The Cross Undoes the Curse

04:54 Need for New Humanity

06:05 Resurrection New Body

07:24 Scarlet Thread of Grace

09:15 Living by Grace Today

10:22 The Lord's Prayer Closing

Welcome to In Light of the Cross.

2

We're wrapping up the Old Testament

today, we've been focusing these

3

last few weeks on understanding the

different parts of the Old Testament

4

in light of the cross of Christ.

5

In many ways, this is like

6

a detective novel or a mystery novel

where after you get to the end, you

7

can see how all the parts that came

before fit together to get to that end.

8

So as we understand the Old Testament,

we're not just understanding in its own

9

time and place we want to do that, it

starts there, but we want to understand

10

it in light of its ultimate meaning

that's found in Jesus and the cross.

11

If Jesus is the fulfillment of the

law and the prophet, as he himself

12

said, and if all the things point

to him, then understanding the Old

13

Testament in light of Jesus is crucial

to our understanding it at all.

14

so today, and let's just review what we've

talked about for the last three weeks.

15

And you remember we began talking

about the four dimensions of sin and

16

especially as we looked at the Adam

and Eve story and how that sin, DNA,

17

infected mankind in various ways.

18

We looked at, first of all, it was

the breaking of a commandment of God.

19

So God told them, this is what you should

do or not do, and they broke that command.

20

But by doing so, they were

also betrayed The relationship.

21

they were refusing to trust God.

22

Adam and Eve could not have grasped for

the fruit in their hand unless they had

23

already rejected God in their heart.

24

Adam and Eve reached for

their own good apart from God.

25

They broke that relationship of

trust and instead of trusting

26

God, they were trusting their

own wisdom in defiance of God.

27

And then third sin is

enslavement to the enemy.

28

And we see that embodied in that story

where the tempter lies to Adam and Eve

29

in order to get them to betray their

relationship and break the commandment.

30

And again.

31

Adam and Eve could not disobey

God without obeying God's enemy.

32

And we've talked about how then

there seems to be some way in

33

which all of us, when we sin,

align ourselves with God's enemy.

34

And the New Testament describes

that as a kind of slavery,

35

that we are enslaved to him.

36

And lastly, sin is not only breaking

the command and betraying the

37

relationship enslavement to the

enemy of God, but it's forfeiting

38

the good life that God desires of us.

39

Adam and Eve had that life

within Eden, within Paradise,

40

a life where they had all that they

needed, where they were fulfilling their

41

good purpose that God created them for,

and a life where they had direct communion

42

with God and they forfeited all that by

their rejection of God through their sin.

43

Now, remember.

44

When we talked about how one John three

says that the reason the son of God came

45

was to undo the work of the devil, so

the cross is going to undo all of this.

46

And you see that trace

throughout the Old Testament.

47

One of the ways is he

brings justification.

48

breaking the commandment brings

condemnation and punishment, but

49

God takes a punishment upon himself.

50

He brings justification, the idea

that he can declare as righteous

51

and free from guilt, because he

himself pays a penalty for that.

52

And you see that in Eden As some animal

is killed, as a substitute so that God

53

can clothe Adam and Eve with garments.

54

You see that on the Day of Atonement,

and you see that in the sacrificial

55

system, the sacrifices were brought to be

a substitute for the sin of the people.

56

So he brings justification, but he also

brings reconciliation and redemption.

57

We see that in many places

in the Old Testament, Ruth

58

is an example of, redemption.

59

Something has been lost.

60

A price has to be paid to restore

it to what it should be, and

61

that's what Jesus has done.

62

we have lost our place and our purpose

as those in God's image and in a

63

relationship with God and the cross.

64

is God's way of reconciling us and

redeeming us, paying the price so

65

that we could be restored to that.

66

We see also that he brings

victory over the enemy and you

67

see that theme again and again.

68

You see it in the Book of Exodus where

God brings judgment upon the gods of

69

Egypt and against the Pharaoh of Egypt who

had oppressed and enslaved God's people.

70

We see it in David, if you

recall that David story.

71

Where Goliath, symbolizes spiritual forces

that are em, battle against God's people.

72

And God saves his people through the

weakness of this boy or the seeming

73

weakness of this boy just as he saves us

through the seeming weakness of the cross.

74

And then finally, we talked about how

he brings new life by his resurrection.

75

And this is really the whole

story of the Old Testament.

76

We need a new kind of human.

77

So right from the beginning, right

from Genesis three, God has promised

78

that there will be a seed of the

woman who will crush the serpent.

79

And the idea being that he will undo

all the evil that the serpent has done.

80

But who is it gonna be?

81

Will be Noah, which

seems like a new start.

82

No, he's not the one.

83

Will it be Abraham and Sarah?

84

Will they be the The new

humanity, the new Adam and Eve?

85

No, they have their own failures.

86

Will it be the people

of Israel as a whole?

87

Will it be Moses?

88

No.

89

Will be the judges.

90

No.

91

Will it be David?

92

No.

93

He fails also.

94

All this is pointing again and again

that we need not just to be forgiven.

95

But we need a new kind of life.

96

We need a new kind of human because

there's something about our Adam

97

infused DNA that fundamentally

works against God's good purposes.

98

It's still enslaved to

the forces of the enemy.

99

In a sense that has to be changed, and

that's what the resurrection is about.

100

When Jesus was resurrected, he

received a resurrected body, and if

101

you read the gospel accounts of that

carefully, it seems it had different

102

characteristics in a sense than the body

that he had before, but because of him.

103

The promise is that we too will receive

a resurrection, not just in a body

104

with the same faults and weaknesses

and sin nature, but a new kind of body.

105

It will still be physical,

but not the same kind of body.

106

Paul, in one Corinthians 15

said, if you wanted to plant an

107

oak tree in your backyard, what

do you do to get an oak tree?

108

Do you cut down an 80 foot oak

tree and bury it in your yard?

109

No.

110

You bury an acorn and in the same way our

life here, if we are those in Christ is

111

an acorn that'll be placed in the ground.

112

The body we will receive

is like the oak tree.

113

There is a continuity, but there's

also a great discontinuity.

114

So he brings a new life

by his resurrection.

115

that's one of the main points of the

Old Testament again and again, to show

116

us that we don't need to just be saved

from our problem, we need a new kind of

117

life, the kind of life that ultimately

Jesus, the Messiah, will bring.

118

And of course, along with this,

you see that other great theme.

119

That it's all by grace.

120

It's all by grace.

121

Every part of the Old Testament has

a scarlet thread of God's grace.

122

We throughout the human failure is

God's grace again and again and again.

123

Right there in the guarded.

124

You see it.

125

In the promise of God, there will be an

offspring of the woman who will defeat

126

and undo all that's been made wrong.

127

You see it in the way God provided

garments of skin for them to cover them in

128

a way that they could not do themselves.

129

We see it in Noah's story where Noah found

grace and God saved mankind through him.

130

We see it in the Exodus where his judgment

passed over all those who put the blood of

131

the lamb upon the doorposts of their home.

132

We see it again and again.

133

It's all by grace.

134

It's not by human effort

or human striving.

135

We are saved by grace alone.

136

And this of course points ahead

to the ultimate act of grace, that

137

Jesus Christ came and lived among us.

138

God incarnate God in the flesh.

139

He lived a perfect life and

he died a redemptive death, a

140

substitutionary death for us.

141

And that's why Paul can go to

great lengths again and again in

142

Ephesians Chapter two is by grace,

you have been saved, not by works.

143

The whole point of the first half

of Romans is that it has to be by

144

God's grace because human effort can

never do it, can never achieve it.

145

Christ fulfills the Old Testament,

not, only by being the one

146

who is the true Israelite.

147

The one who truly walks with God,

but also by being the way that God

148

shows his grace to those of us,

all of us who couldn't be that.

149

This is how to read the Old

Testament in light of the cross,

150

and as we conclude today, I would

encourage you to think about

151

your own need of grace today.

152

Not only for your salvation, but

even for every aspect of your life

153

that you try to live that before God.

154

Grace is not something that we

just receive for our salvation.

155

It is now this whole realm that we enter

into and live in, and receiving this

156

ongoing grace through prayer, humbling

ourselves before God and asking for it

157

is really the key to any kind of life

before God on this side of the cross.

158

So spend a few minutes today asking God

to show you where you need that gift of

159

grace and asking him to grant it to you.

160

And let's conclude with the prayer

that Jesus taught us to pray as a

161

model and a template for our own.

162

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

163

Your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

164

Give us today our daily bread

and forgive us our debts as we

165

also have forgiven our debtors.

166

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

167

Amen.